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Calls for independent student grant appeals system

Fianna Fáil’s Seán Fleming said that the office of the Ombudsman currently does not cover the student grant processing.

Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT grant appeals system should be set up, the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform Seán Fleming has said.

Deputy Fleming made the call after establishing that the new student grant processing system, SUSI, is currently not covered by the office of the Ombudsman.

Deputy Fleming said he had contacted the Ombudsman’s office this week after receiving a number of complaints about SUSI from students.

He said that the students who were allegedly given wrong information cannot have their cases investigated independently by the Ombudsdman, which investigates complaints relating to a number of public bodies. SUSI will not come under the Ombudsman’s remit until next May.

“The Ombudsman will only be able to deal with problems that arise after next May, and will not be able to investigate any of the problems that arose in the current academic year,” he said. In the meantime, the students have only the option of an internal process of appeals available to them, he added.

Deputy Fleming is now calling on the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to immediately establish an administrative (non-legislative) independent appeals and complaints mechanism on a temporary basis to cover the period until SUSI comes under the Ombudsman’s remit.

Read: SUSI “making substantial progress” in processing student grants>

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Comments (8 Comments)

  • SUSI is just another example of a system created by the government without thinking the entire process through . It was much less complicated and more efficient when left in the hands of local authorities .
    At least then you could go to their offices and iron out your difficulties .
    It’s an absolute disgrace that at the end of the first term of college some students are still waiting to receive their grants .

    Reply
    • Reg 17/12/12 #

      While it is unacceptable that there is this huge delay in the payment of grants it would be equally unacceptable if the previous system was left in place. There is no need to have multiple different organisations administering a student grant system in a small country.

      Reply
  • Wake up little SUSI, wake up!

    Reply
  • Remember our minister gave reassurances that all would be paid by christmas. Fail!

    Reply
  • Badly need some sort of support office and appeals for students, the entire student grant system has to be looked at as its unacceptable that students are not getting grants until the following year after already struggling to pay the fees, books, accomodation etc for the first couple of months. Ireland will not grow and flourish without the high level of education being made more available to students. Yet again the grant system is another barrier for students (especially from low income families) wishing to progress and free themselves from living day to day struggling.

    Reply
  • Students like me in our 4th year fall into unique category under SUSI rules. We can get both BTEA AND the grant. The amount of 4th year students being told we can’t have both in my college alone is staggering. Somebody at SUSI, will you PLEASE tell the people who are dealing with the applications of this exception to the general rule. You are causing a lot of heartache for a lot of people.

    Reply
    • their in efficiency works both ways.i know of a student wrongly getting btea and grant now.only reason i can think they made this boo boo is he is mature student and the acessors think they are already in a course before changes came in.the mind boggles as to how many other errors like this were made haha

      Reply
  • they only thing i want to hear from those crims in FF is that they have been disbanded or they have decided to come clean and give up the criminals responsible for destroying my country

    Reply

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